November 2010

Promising myself before bedtime
to contend more urgently
with the problem. From nothing
nothing comes. Behind everything -
something, somebody? In the beginnning
violence, the floor of the universe
littered with fragments. After
the enormous brawl, where
did the dove come from? From what
acorn mind these dark
boughs among which at night
thought loses its way back
to its dim sources, [...]

He will come like last leaf’s fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud’s folding.
He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens to mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.
He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting [...]

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now thy [...]

“Prayer after Eating” by Wendell Berry
I have taken in the light
that quickened eye and leaf.
May my brain be bright with praise
of what I eat, in the brief blaze
of motion and of thought.
May I be worthy of my meat.

Ekklesia: Though the olive branch is a symbol of peace…
…harvesting olives for Palestinians, when they have to pass through a military-manned barrier to get to their land in an occupied area, is a point of conflict - writes Judith Sudilovsky.
Against this background and for the seventh year, the Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI), [...]

E100
The E100 Bible Reading Challenge is based around 100 carefully selected Bible readings (50 from the Old Testament and 50 from the New Testament) designed to give participants a good understanding of the overall Bible story from Genesis to Revelation. The ‘E’ stands for Essential and each of the Essential 100 [...]

Rattling The Cage: Face of Israel in a West Bank courtroom
This was justice as I’d never seen it, as very, very few Israelis have seen it. The judge was an IDF officer in a light-green uniform and knitted kippa. The prosecutor was an IDF officer in a light-green uniform, no kippa. [...]

The Methodist Youth Assembly has elected Sam Taylor as the Church’s new Youth President for 2011-2012.
“I am delighted to have been elected as Youth President designate and I am greatly looking forward to starting the role in September,” said Sam, following his election at the Youth Assembly last weekend.
Sam, aged 17, is currently [...]

It isn’t very often you’ll find me quoting the Daily Mail with any approval, but Influential climate change report ‘was copied from Wikipedia’ got my attention
Research questioning the validity of global warming was copied from Wikipedia and textbooks, it has been claimed.
A report by statistician Edward Wegman criticised earlier research led by scientist Michael Mann [...]

Head of thy church, whose Spirit fills
And flows through every faithful soul,
Unites in mystic love, and seals
Them one, and sanctifies the whole;
“Come, Lord,” thy glorious Spirit cries,
And souls beneath the altar groan;
“Come, Lord,” the bride on earth replies,
“And perfect all our souls in one.”
Pour out the promised gift on all,
Answer the universal “Come!”
The fulness of [...]

Ben Myers offers a ’sequel’ to his theses on sadness: Twelve theses on joy
Joy is itinerant and can be visited in many places, but its regular venue is friendship. Friendship is the love of difference. The face of the friend is the mirror in which the joy of one’s own difference shines.
The [...]

From the BBC
Right wing groups like the English Defence League are turning parts of Britain into recruiting grounds for Islamic extremists, police have said.
The EDL emerged last year and has held demonstrations in a number of towns and cities against radicalisation.
But the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit has told BBC Radio 5 live there is [...]

John Cooper: Olive be having that
This morning’s radio brought a rude reminder of injustice in the world. If you click here you will find a short item on how the olive groves are a source of conflict in the ‘occupied’ territories of Palestine.
I find it sad to find Israel’s actions are defended by [...]

That Ahmed Ghailani was cleared of 285 of the 286 charges against him is being reported as a blow to the Obama administration’s policy of giving civilian trials to the terrorist suspects currently held in Guantanamo. The court obviously hadn’t been told that not guilty verdicts weren’t allowed.
Meanwhile, we’re told that Sarah Palin’s [...]

URL shortening services are 10 a penny these days. But suppose you want to share lots of links in one short tweet? Or anywhere else, for that matter.
Bit.ly have come up with the bright idea of “bundles” - lots of URLs combined into one short one. So http://bit.ly/9w4gDU, for example will take you to some [...]